Sometimes when riding my bike, I feel like I’m inside a video game that’s throwing all manner of obstacles my way, and I have to react and deal with them in order to move on to the next level.

Last weekend’s 600K had a fair number of these– enough that I began to take notice.

We interrupt this brevet to corral a cow.

That was exciting. Reminded me of Iowa and this one time where I was coming back for a run and helped lady shepherd pigs off the road. The good old days!

We interrupt this brevet for a train.

It was long but fast-moving, and we resumed our pedaling after a few minutes. The final miles passed uninterrupted. Mile 242. Time to take a break.

We interrupt this brevet for high water, road closed.

In one spot of the ride, the road appeared to be under water. Lucky for us Damon, who rode through the area in the wee hours, was the first to encounter the flooded road and called into brevet headquarters so that we could all easily navigate around it.

We interrupt this brevet for a half-marathon.

In the next mile or so after the detour, we were stopped in our tandem tracks by a nonstop flow of runners. It was a little after 7 a.m., and our jaunt through Fredericksburg perfectly coincided with the Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon.

The fast runners were packed tightly and moving quickly so we had no choice, but to stop and cheer them on. “Go runners!” It was so much fun to see them and to observe a little of the event, which boasted over 6,000 finishers.

After a while, the participants thinned and slowed enough that we spied a big enough break between runners to cross over to the other side of the street and resume course. Bye runners!

We interrupt this brevet for a motorcycle procession.

Twenty miles further and we again found our tandem (and us on it) halted by the local police as motorcycle after motorcycle passed in front of us.

High water, a cow, motorcycles, a train, and runners. I don’t think I’ve ever been on a ride with such a variety of unexpected encounters.

I could not help but laugh at this rich potpourri of minor obstructions. I wonder what level I would be on if this brevet had been a video game.